BRITOMARTIS
blessed she fled
foul to fish
©2015 Soft Terror In Six Words stephaniepope mythopoetry.com
In SIX WORDS or fewer, write a story about a woman with an unusual pet. #6words @Kelsye
notes
The poem is titled “soft terror” to accent the early origin of this goddess in the mythologem of the mountain mother, Artemis. The Mother of Mountains is perhaps the earliest aspect of the Cretan goddess. Given this context makes her “unusual” pet one that possesses the demon-like features of the gorgon.
In Minoan art, and on coins, seals and rings and the like throughout Greece, Britomartis is depicted with demonic features, carrying a double-handed axe and accompanied by feral animals.
The oldest aspect of the Cretan Goddess was as Mother of Mountains who appears on Minoan seals with the demonic features of a Gorgon, accompanied by the double axes of power and gripping divine snakes. Her terror-inspiring aspect was softened by calling her Britomartis, a euphemism. Every element of the classical myths that told of Britomartis served to reduce her power and scope, even literally to entrap her in nets (but only because she “wanted” to be entrapped): patriarchal writers even made her the “daughter” of Zeus, rather than his patroness. ~ see The Broom Closet Look What Fell Out of the Closet!
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